This invention relates to siding products generally, and more particularly to siding corners having cedar impressions formed thereon.
Wooden shingles and shakes are very popular and attractive siding products used in the construction of homes, businesses and other structures. Unfortunately, these wooden products require constant maintenance, and are extremely expensive, as well as labor intensive to install. Further, the durability of wooden products, such as those constructed from cedar, lags far behind that of products made of synthetic materials. Therefore, a considerable number of synthetic siding products have been created that simulate the wooden appearance of, for example, cedar shingles or cedar shake shingles. These siding products are typically formed from materials such as polyvinyl chloride and polypropylene.
Once siding panels are installed onto the exterior sheathing of a structure, it often becomes necessary to place a corner cap over the exposed ends of the siding panels. Efforts have been made to match the ornamental appearance of the siding panel with the corner cap appearance, so as to avoid an unaesthetic or artificial looking final structure. One example is the simulated shake siding corner described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,391 to Epstein, et al. entitled xe2x80x9cSimulated Cedar Shake Construction,xe2x80x9d issued Apr. 5, 1977, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. Epstein describes simulated cedar shake siding panels that are attached to the outside walls of a structure and a corner piece 70 that may be used in conjunction with the described siding panels.
The Epstein corner 70, illustrated in FIGS. 1A through 1F, is formed with a shake impression thereon in order to match the shake appearance provided by the siding panels, also described in Epstein and shown in FIG. 1F. The siding corner 70 simulates two shakes 71, 73 nailed or otherwise mitre attached at about 90xc2x0, one to the other. The corner piece 70 is formed with the horizontal base 72 approximating in size the normal depth of natural shakes. A vertical lip 74 extends from the inside edge of horizontal base 72 and locks two overlapping corners 70 when it engages slot receptor 80 formed between the base of nose 78 and planes of the pre-apertured nailing tab 76. Two corners 70 may be interfitted butt-end to head-end when the lip 74 is received inside slot receptor 80, as illustrated in FIG. 1C. The shake faces 71, 73 are angled forward from top to bottom so that the lip 74 can enter slot receptor 80 of the next lowest corner 70. The nailing tab 76 seats against the wall surfaces and may be nailed thereto. FIG. 1F is a plan view of a siding facade including a plurality of stacked corners 70, one on top of the other, with the shake faces 71,73 overlapping the side edges of simulated shake panels 97,95,91,93 nailed to two walls of a structure.
FIG. 2A of the Epstein ""391 patent is a front perspective view of another prior art multiple course simulated cedar shake corner piece 100, and FIG. 2B is a right side elevational view of the corner of FIG. 2A. The corner piece 100 includes two faces 102, 104 having a pair of vertically stacked shingle impressions thereon. The corner piece 100 includes two nailing flanges 106, 108. The corner piece 100 is nailed to a corner of a structure prior to attaching siding panels, which overlap the nailing flanges 108, 106 of the corner piece 100.
Prior art corner pieces, such as corner pieces 70, 100 described above, suffer from several drawbacks. First, referring to FIG. 1F, when viewing a corner of a structure covered by a stack of a plurality of corner pieces 70 such that both walls of the structure that form the corner are visible, the appearance of a random selection of shingles within each course formed on the siding panels does not continue through to the corner pieces 70 when the corner pieces 70 each have identical faces 71, 73. The courses do not appear as if they terminate in a natural manner at the corners of the structure. This unnatural appearance occurs when employing either the multiple course corner piece 100, where the faces 102, 104 are identical, or when employing the single course corner piece 70, where the faces 71, 73 are identical.
Further, as best illustrated in FIG. 2B, when viewing only a single wall of a structure that includes a prior art corner piece 70 or a prior art corner piece 100, it becomes quite apparent that artificial corner pieces have been employed. A continuous and non-staggered lateral edge 110 is apparent along the entire corner of the structure from corner piece 70, 100 to corner piece 70, 100 when corner pieces 70, 100 are attached to the structure in a vertical stack, one on top of the other. The linear joint formed between the siding corner pieces and the siding panels is apparent to even a casual observer.
Therefore, there remains a need for a corner piece that provides the appearance of a more natural termination of the courses of a siding facade employing simulated cedar impression siding panels and for a corner piece that more effectively blends the corner piece into the facade to mask the presence of the corner piece and promote the overall desired appearance of a random selection of individual shingles.
The present invention provides a corner piece for covering a corner of a structure defined by two mating walls of the structure and for use in conjunction with siding panels containing multiple shingle impression courses fastened to the mating walls. The corner piece includes a first group of vertically stacked walls and a second group of vertically stacked walls, each wall in the first and second groups including an exterior face and an interior face and a first lateral edge and a second lateral edge opposite the first lateral edge. The first group and second group meet at a common corner defined by the first lateral edges. The exterior faces collectively include an ornamental appearance containing a plurality of vertically stacked shingle impressions. The second lateral edges of the walls in at least one of the groups are staggered in width relative to the common corner, wherein the shingle impressions of the at least one group overlap at least a portion of the siding panels when the siding panels and the corner piece are fastened to the structure.
The shingle impressions and the multiple shingle impression courses of the siding panels cooperate to give the appearance that the corner piece substantially blends into the siding panels. The corner piece provides a natural looking termination to the courses of the siding panels when viewing the structure from the side (i.e., when only one of the walls is visible) or when viewing the corner of the structure (i.e., when both of the walls of the structure are visible). No linear seem or joint is conspicuously formed between the corner piece and the siding panels, thereby masking the presence of a prefabricated and artificial corner member.